Alternate Reduce Withering NPC

[Trevor White]

The problem with the current one in the town is that he runs on cash, and cash is harder to get off quests at higher levels compared to items. So you end up crushing quests and selling everything just to stay in the same place. Numbers Go Up is a game that's lost some of its appeal to me compared to player-driven plots, but you need to spam quests to get the supplies and cure prices to do those.

My suggestion is for a Withering Removal NPC whose cost is not based on resources. Rather than having to get on the quest treadmill, your PC pays in other ways. The treatment is offered for a nominal cost of 10GP or something, but comes with side effects. The treatment reduces your Withering score over time, firing on each tick for wage/advancement XP. This means you have to be logged in and active for it to work. While active it applies 1 level of Level Drain and maybe other random skill losses. This way, you don't have PCs locked down, doing nothing because of high Withering. The reason not every NPC gets the cure can be "it would kill a L1 Commoner from the side effects, can't afford to keep spending 10 GP I am Poor," etc.

The idea would be that you could take this and spend a couple of hours playing the game but with your PC at a lowered power level, in order to reduce the Withering. You'd get roleplay from the side effects, and it would be a case of coping with those rather than "I will solve this problem by killing 200 more Harpies to buy fixes".

[Pentaxius]

I liked you previous suggestion better I must say.

Share the burden of the XP cost between the provider and the target, half-half. Have the cost depend on the provider's caster level. Have the cost function match the EFU's progression cure.

CL / Provider / Recipient
CL5 : 100/100 (-5)
CL6 : 95/95 (-5)
CL7 : 90/90 (-5)
CL8 : 80/80 (-10)
CL9 : 70/70 (-10)
CL 10 : 60/60 (-10)
CL 11 : 45/45 (-15)
CL 12 : 30/30 (-15)
CL 13 : 15/15 (-15)

And yes, 100 XP at level 5 is still way, way less than 60 at level 10. But I think it's a reasonable tradeoff.

[Trevor White]

This suggestion is in addition to the other one, which was dropping the burden entirely on the target so the decision to offer cures or not is totally an IC choice, not based on your XP grinding. The problem comes when an OC situation (lack of any players runing I Cure Your Withering concepts) locks down the game for other people. Improving Remove Curse is good, but if nobody will offer it anyway, then everyone gets trapped in the hamster wheel of Do Quests -> Earn Money -> Buy NPC Cures. As opposed to quests fueling player-driven actions. This also becomes a massive gold sink with huge amounts of cash flowing out of player hands rather than going round in PC trade and exiting the game through potion brewing or NPC stores.

The idea here is that you take debuffs and sacrifice your ability to quest crush *right now* in order to be able to continue playing the PC. You would of course still be able to RP around town, plot, or do quests inefficiently/with higher risk.

[Trevor White]

It is getting ICly more difficult to avoid the withering, true. But what I believe is a problem is the collection of OC factors that influence being able to get rid of it. Such as XP cost, gold availability from level-capped quests, people having to AFK and leaving you stuck waiting in heavily Withered areas etc. It makes for poor game when there's nobody willing to do cheapish Withering cures, as it splits the playerbase. You end up with tight factions and powergamers able to afford a solution, and everyone else wondering why they bother to do the interesting, risky stuff or leave Mistlocke for anything other than running over to quests. It doesn't encourage avoiding the dangerous places so much as it does not doing any PC-led action without even more quest crushing like mad for a cure budget.

Specifically, I've hit L8 on this PC and then wondered if that's ironically a disadvantage. It's much easier to get cash and supplies without leaving the village at 3-7 than it is at 8+. There is no sensible IC reason why I can't go smashing up bugs in the 2-5 quest for example, if my PC is desperate for cash. I am even considering deliberately getting the PC killed and respawning so I can hit quests for cures without risking running into a Blight Retcher and getting permaed.

The argument used to be that once you reached the higher levels you were expected to be doing more than just quest. However in EFU:M you have the constant pressure of the Withering and needing to get that removed, so either you're questing for XP to cast or gold to pay people to cure your PC. Whereas Dryroots are a constant supply tax that you pay as you go, Withering fixes are bulk costs you usually end up needing serious resources  for. It means you can get stuck on a PC because of a few unlucky mobs or something raising your Withering, and not having the resources to pay for it. Oh well, best roll up a new PC.

TBH, I'd even pay XP for a "cure" that costs you XP and reduces Withering. Trade my own character progression for being able to play the PC still. Because PCs always have XP to sacrifice, even if they deathspiralled and are out of cash/potions/herbs to pay with. Currently though, only caster classes can make that trade.

TL;DR
It's easy to jump to a point where your PC is stuck in a treadmill of grind just to get rid of Withering and let them pursue goals again. Much like if you suffer repeated deaths and have to get your XP back, except that this is all the time. Increasing IC problems without offering more solutions means that players default to the #1 Solution of "Turn over the Granary 200 more times". Desperation is interesting to roleplay if you have a selection of cost types so that any PC can make some sort of trade to deal with the problem. However, right now it's heavily dependent on if people are playing "fluffy" priests who will Remove Curse spam cheap or free then go hit a 3-6 for the XP back. Going to see one of those is IC, but people playing them is an OC choice.